Canister packages are generally cylindrical tubular containers used to package a variety of foods such as, for example, biscuit dough, cookie dough, frozen juices, and the like. Canister packages can be formed from paperboard blanks with the use of a canister forming machine such as those available from Paper Machinery Corporation (PMC) and others. In such machines, a blank is rolled into a cylindrical tubular shape and its edges secured together to form the body of the canister. A disc-shaped end plate, which may be made, for example, of metal, plastic, or paperboard, is secured to one end of the canister body. The canister may then be filled with product, whereupon the other end of the body is closed and sealed with another disc-shaped end plate. Some canister packages are known as “barrier packages” because they include coatings that keep moisture in or out and that prevent the migration of oxygen into the canister.
Canister packages can be opened in a variety of ways to access the product inside. In the case of biscuit dough, for example, it is not practical to remove the dough from one of the ends of the canister. Thus, it is customary for the body of a dough canister to be formed as a spiral roll that is ruptured by applying targeted force to the body or by whacking the canister body on the edge of a counter or the like. The partially expanded dough inside the canister applies outward pressure to the walls of the canister so that the body of the canister tends to pop open when a small rupture is created to provide access to the dough product inside. Some dough recipes, however, do not result in dough that expands and applies outward pressure to a canister. Thus, the traditional opening techniques such as whacking the body of the canister on the edge of a counter or applying targeted force will not cause the canister to pop open.
Some canister packages are openable by removal of one of their ends either with a can opener or by removal of a thin plastic strip wedged between the crimped lip of the end plate and the peripheral edge of the canister body. While opening a canister package from an end is satisfactory for removing certain foods such as frozen juices, it is not practical for removing sticky or partially expanded food such as dough, which will not slide easily out of the opened canister. Further, removing an end cap from the canister leaves the product completely recessed in the canister body. It is not uncommon that a spoon or other utensil is required to scoop product from the canister body, which can be messy and irritating.
A need therefore exists for an improved canister package that can be opened easily and reliably, even for non-expanded contents, without the need to whack the can on a hard surface or apply targeted pressure to the body of the can, and that provides more convenient access to product than do canister packages that are opened at an end. It is to the provision of such a canister package that the present disclosure is primarily directed.